Civilization VI its getting is next major update sometime this week. The spring 2017 patch will bring a range of balance changes, AI adjustments and bug fixes, and it’ll also coincide with the launch of two new DLC civs – Macedon and Persia.
Civilization VI won a place on our list of the best strategy games on PC, and it’s only gotten better since launch.
The spring update was only announced last Tuesday, but according to an announcement on Steam, it’s going live sometime this week.
Some of the more exciting changes are reduced warmonger penalties across the board; declaring formal wars is penalised much less harshly, as is capturing cities, especially if they’re smaller than the global average. A ‘Future Civics’ tech has also been added to the end of the civics tree, so now you don’t have to keep researching social media (in fact, it’s arguably a mistake to research it in the first place).
Harbours have also been buffed, now giving a major adjacency bonus with the city centre, plus extra food and gold on coastal tiles when certain buildings are constructed. Royal Navy Dockyards now also give extra trade routes, boosting England’s economic potential.
On the AI side, AIs will better coordinate multiple attacking units, and capture civilians with ranged units. They will also try harder to repair pillaged assets, and build more than one neighbourhood to expand their cities. Minor civs will also not pursue policies that give influence they can’t use.
Those are the highlights, but it’s a pretty comprehensive patch, making further adjustments to multiplayer, scenarios, the recently-releaesd modding tools and more. Check out the post on Steam for full notes.
The update is free, but you’ll have to pay for Macdeon and Persia. For the lowdown on these new civs, check our faction guide. Macedon look especially deadly for the military minded, with two unique units under Alexander the Great (who is now even more hatefully smug) and abilities to obviate many of warfare’s downsides.